The Afrin Dam ( ar, سد عفرين), officially 17 April Dam ( ar, سد 17 نيسان), also called Maydanki Dam ( ar, سد ميدانكي), is an earth-filled water storage and hydroelectric power dam on the
Afrin River
The Afrin River ( ar, نهر عفرين ''Nahr ʻIfrīn''; ( ku, Çemê Efrînê; northern Syrian vernacular: ''Nahər ʻAfrīn''; tr, Afrin Çayı) is a tributary of the Orontes River in Turkey and Syria. It rises in the Kartal Mountains in ...
in northwest
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
. It provides drinking water to almost 200,000 people, irrigates about of olives, fruit trees and agricultural crops, and supplies 25 MW of hydroelectric power. It is currently under the control of the
Turkish Land Forces
The Turkish Land Forces ( tr, Türk Kara Kuvvetleri), or Turkish Army (Turkish: ), is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the ...
.
Location
The dam is north of the town of Afrin in northwest Syria.
It is from the city of
Aleppo
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and from the town of Afrin, near the village of Midaneka (Maydanki).
A large part of the region is planted with olive and fruit trees.
About 80% of the area depends on rainwater irrigation, and the remainder on wells and pumps.
Before the dam was built the orchards and other crops were irrigated, but the olive trees were not.
The
Afrin District
Afrin District ( ar, منطقة عفرين, manṭiqat Afrīn) is a district of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria. The administrative centre is the city of Afrin. At the 2004 census, the district had a population of 172,095. Also available i ...
is populated by
Kurds ug:كۇردلار
Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ir ...
, the furthest west of the Syrian Kurdish regions.
The catchment area is , with annual rainfall of . The
Afrin River
The Afrin River ( ar, نهر عفرين ''Nahr ʻIfrīn''; ( ku, Çemê Efrînê; northern Syrian vernacular: ''Nahər ʻAfrīn''; tr, Afrin Çayı) is a tributary of the Orontes River in Turkey and Syria. It rises in the Kartal Mountains in ...
originates in the south of the
Kartal Mountains
Kartal is a district of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the Asian side of the city, on the coast of the Marmara Sea between Maltepe and Pendik.
Despite being far from the city centre, Kartal is heavily populated (total population of 541,209) (200 ...
in Turkey, crosses into Syria where it runs through the city of Afrin, and then crosses back into Turkey. About of the annual flow of the river comes from the Hatay Province of Turkey, while about originates in Syria.
History
The dam was intended to irrigate land in the river valley in the region between
Aleppo
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and the border with Turkey.
The project was approved in 1984 after extensive studies by the Ministry of Irrigation.
The dam would control the river flow and prevent flooding, would irrigate up to of land, supply drinking water in the region, provide up to 20 MW of hydroelectric power and would become a tourist attraction.
Construction began in 1997. The dam was built for the General Water Resources Authority at a total cost of LS 58.2 billion, including the cost of land acquisition for the reservoir. of earth and rock was excavated during construction. The dam was inaugurated on 24 April 2004 in the presence of Prime Minister
Muhammad Naji al-Otari
Muhammad Naji al-Otari ( ar, محمد ناجي عطري also ''Etri'', ''Itri'' and ''Otri'') (born 1944) is a Syrian politician who was Prime Minister of Syria from 2003 to 2011.Syrian Civil War. On 9 March 2018, during
Operation Olive Branch
Operation Olive Branch ( tr, Zeytin Dalı Harekâtı) was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces and Syrian National Army (SNA) in the majority-Kurdish Afrin District of northwest Syria, against the People's Pro ...
Turkish Armed Forces
The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; tr, Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri, TSK) are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. Turkish Armed Forces consist of the General Staff, the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Forces. The current Chi ...
seized control of the dam, capturing it from the Kurdish-majority
People's Protection Units
The People's Defense Units (YPG), (YPG) ; ar, وحدات حماية الشعب, Waḥdāt Ḥimāyat aš-Šaʽb) also called People's Protection Units, is a mainly- Kurdish militia in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democra ...
(YPG).
On 13 January 2019, body filling, water intake structure, reinforced concrete and mechanical cover systems were completed and repaired by the Turkish
State Hydraulic Works
The State Hydraulic Works ( tr, Devlet Su İşleri) is a state agency, under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Turkey, responsible for the utilization of all the country's water resources. The institution's four major functions are ene ...
(DSI), who renamed it the Upper Afrin Dam.
Dam
The earth-filled dam is high, with a crest length of . It has a width of at the base and at the crest. The top of the dam is at an altitude of . The outlet tower has a cross-section of and a height of . The half-fan spillway has capacity of .
A tunnel with a diameter of and length of provides for emergency discharge. Another tunnel, with a diameter of and length of . is used to discharge drinking and irrigation water. There are also wells and tunnels for inspection and drainage of water infiltrating the dam. An innovative network of electrical measurement devices is installed in the body of the dam and the different facilities, including those for measuring temperature and seismic activity. The hydroelectric plant provides 25 MW of power.
Reservoir
The reservoir has a capacity of . It is long, and wide in the center section. It covers an area of . The maximum flow is . The irrigated area is in the Afrin district. Irrigation plans are 52% olive trees, 11% fruit trees, 31% crops such as wheat, barley, beets, watermelons and cotton, and 6% other vegetables. Drinking water is supplied to about 197,000 people.
Tourism
Maydanki Lake is a popular domestic recreational spot, often visited by Aleppians in the summer for picnics and swimming. Local tourism diminished as result of the civil war, however, and mostly collapsed during Operation Olive Branch. Nevertheless, the region's tourism sector had begun to recover by July 2018, with two of the lake's ten cafes and restaurants reopened.